Guest Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Kirkpatrick

On Monday, February 10 at 10:10 AM in the West Reading Room in the Library Dr Jonathan Kirkpatrick will give a talk called: “Bacchus in Narnia: CS Lewis in the Classics.” Bacchus, also known as Dionysus to the Greeks, was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy.

Dr Jonathan Kirkpatrick is the Director of Studies in Classics and the History of Art, SCIO, and Logos in Oxford Academic Coordinator. He holds an MA and a DPhil from the University of Oxford.

Jonathan Kirkpatrick has worked with visiting American undergraduates at the University of Oxford for many years, serving SCIO first as Junior Dean (Resident Director) and latterly as Director of Studies in Classics and the History of Art. He also laboured for two years as Lecturer in Jewish Studies at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford. In 2011 he completed a doctoral thesis on pagan religion in Roman Palestine; his academic interests include Roman religion, Greek and Roman literature and art, Second Temple Judaism, rabbinic literature, and Dionysus. For three years he has been a Scholar in Residence at the Kilns, CS Lewis′ former home. In 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of Lewis′ death, he gave lectures on CS Lewis and the Classics of Greece and Rome at five American universities.